


The Sky is Falling

by Nemmet



Series: Short Prose - FF8 [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: short prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 18:15:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13840302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemmet/pseuds/Nemmet
Summary: This was a better idea in my head... It was supposed to be a crack drabble, but I feel like it might have lost the original idea somewhere in the middle or so.





	The Sky is Falling

**Author's Note:**

> Even though English is my first language, I know American English. The kind where you don't care terribly about grammar. Please let me know if anything needs fixing.

He had just woken up and was absentmindedly looking around his room, letting his mind clear the fog. Tuning into the living world, he realized that he must have slept later than usual, hearing the busy city life outside the walls of his tiny apartment. One full-body stretch later, he rolled over and contemplated getting out of bed. It was his day off and he didn't _particularly_ want to have to acknowledge life just yet. Nothing against the bar where he worked, but he wanted as much time to himself as possible without having to deal with responsibilities.

Hearing a tone from his bedside table, he shrunk into his blankets.

_Nope. I didn't hear a thing._

It dinged again.

_Nope._

It grew more persistent.

_I SURE WONDER WHAT LIFE TODAY WOULD BE LIKE IF I ACKNOWLEDG--_

It started ringing.

He knew he wouldn't be able to get any more sleep today and so rolled over and answered, it was his senior coworker. And they sounded somewhat panicked.

"Have you looked outside yet today?"

"No? I just woke up. I overslept today."

"... It's 7 in the morning."

His eyes widened in surprise, then suspicion. A quick glance at his phone's display confirmed that it was a few minutes past 7.

"Okay? And? Why are you calling me so early?" His suspicion grew and he quickly followed up, "I'm off today, I'm not coming in."

He could all but feel the eyeroll through the phone, "I'm not going to be pulling you in, it's... actually not too bad, customer-wise. People are largely ordering things straight. Whiskey. Vodka. Bourbon." His eyes went wide and he spluttered into the phone, "The bar is _open_?? It should just be food service right now!" He had gotten up and was tugging on pants, getting ready to make tea.

"Yeah. I wouldn't have started serving if I didn't need one myself and someone threatened to shank me." A clatter was heard through the line and then a crash. "I said keep it down!" his coworker shouted at someone in the bar, "Do _not_  make throw you out!"

He was just absolutely baffled at this point and decided to forego the tea and drop by the place. "What the he-" He was abruptly cut off, "I'm going to need a drink myself at this point. Have you looked outside?" His coworker's voice was uncharacteristically severe. "No? I don't have windows in this studio. Been looking at moving." It really was an incredibly tiny apartment. Barely a room and a half.

"Oh, ho boy. You're gonna be-," His coworker was cut off this time, and by a scream. "I'll call you back, _**go outside.**_ " He looked at his phone in bewilderment and shock - just what the hell was going on? Turning off his screen, he shoved his phone into his pocket and pulled a shirt over his head and muttered to himself about what was going on when he heard screams through the walls.

He jumped in fright, his walls not exactly _thin_ , and stared at the facing wall like faces were appearing in it. "What. The. _Fuck_?" Was it a zombie outbreak? Did someone start shooting? Was someone getting into a fight? A car accident? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running steps thumping down the hallway and he pulled on his shoes in a hurry, heart pounding in worry as more screams and some car horns could be faintly heard.

Bursting out of the apartment, he nearly mowed down his neighbor and his toddler son. After a few babbled apologies, he asked his neighbor if he knew what was going on. "I'm... I... We...," his neighbor stammered, looking at his son in fear briefly before looking back at the barworker, "Um. We have to go." His neighbor pushed past roughly and darted down the hallway for the elevator. Fear met its cousin Anxiety and he started getting pretty worried and he headed downstairs with quite a bit of apprehension.

As he descended from third to the first floor, the sounds from outside grew louder and he grew more worried, shrugging to those he met who were wondering what was going on, having no more information than anyone would tell him. The most he got out of people were two simple words: The sky.

His mind ran wild with ideas as to what it might be, most scenarios being an invasion of some sort, be it by alien or foreign military.

Coming to the first-floor lobby, he saw people crowded around the glass to outside - he couldn't see anything past the bodies and no one would make eye contact with him. As he drew closer, he realized he'd have to push through people to get a look. Most people were talking quietly in fear, but too low for him to make out through the odd scream and crash on the other side of the wall.

He smelled smoke.

Breaking through the wall of people, he looked around, not noticing much out of place other than the streetlights seemed brighter than usual and people were nursing wounds. Apparently, someone had replaced the bulbs finally - he'd been complaining about a good month that they were getting too dim.

But... that wasn't right.

He squinted past the lights as numb realization dawned on him.

It wasn't dark outside. The dark had lifted. The sun showed brightly above them in the sky, not a cloud in sight.

The City of Night was graced by daylight.


End file.
